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Pragmatism and the ‘Other Kant,” Kant as Public Intellectual and Political
Theorist
Jackie Ann Kegley, CSU, Bakersfield
This paper will explore affinities between Kant’s thought especially as expressed in
The Critique of Judgment, his work, Perpetual Peace, his writings on
Anthropology and especially his public essays and letters on political issues and
his work The Contest of Faculties. This ‘other Kant’ has been extensively revealed
through work in contemporary Philosophy of Communication and on rhetoric as
understood today as well as in the work of Hannah Arnedt as exemplified in her
Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy edited by Ronald Beiner. Another
valuable source of insight on this ‘other Kant’ is The Politics of Truth by Michel
Foucault and his Introduction to Kant’s Anthropology. Finally, we will also rely
somewhat on Kant’s Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View and the volume
of works on Kant entitled Anthropology, History and Education edited by Günter
Zoller and Robert B. Louden.
Viewing Kant through these various sources reveals an important complex of
Kantian ideas and claims that are clearly relevant to any discussion of the
relationship of Kantian thought to Pragmatism. Exploring these ideas will allow us
not only to reveal new insights on Kantian thought but also will allow us to
discover a number of affinities with the thought of the Pragmatists, particularly the
ideas of John Dewy and Josiah Royce
One of the first important complex of Kantian ideas concerns the role of
philosophy and the role of the philosopher as a public intellectual as well as one
obligated to critique underlying assumptions, beliefs, and prejudices of one’s times
and society. A central concept for Kant was the notion of ‘publicity,’ a concept
explored extensively by the contemporary theorists of communication as well as by
Arendt and Foucault. Kant, perhaps unknown to many, gave extensive treatment
to the concept of ‘popularity,’ or rendering technically meticulous philosophical
work accessible and engaging to the broader reading public. [Both Dewey and
Royce critique philosophy for being an ‘ivory tower’ and esoteric affair.]
Indeed, at the core of Kant’s definition of “enlightenment was the duty to exercise
the public use of reason at every point. Freedom to speak as a scholar (in a public
role, where vigilant interrogation is not only possible, but obligatory) requires the
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courage to use one’s reason in a widely accessible form rather than relying on an
apparatus to outsource one’s judgment to others.1 For Kant, notes Foucault,
Enlightenment was less a content, or a time frame and more a flexible and
reflective attitude of perpetual critical examination and inquiry.2 In his essay on
the Enlightenment. Kant defends the freedom to examine issues publicly, devoid of
censorship on theological and political matters.
This strong argument for freedom to speak and publish and for the obligation to
make public use of one’s reason obviously has major implications for political
philosophy as Arendt has made clear and it certainly allows us to explore affinities
between Kant and the work of John Dewey and Josiah Royce and their arguments
concerning deliberative democracy.3 Both Dewey and Royce were committed
public intellectuals and believed the central role of philosophy was to enlighten
everyday experience and critique the society and the time. Related to this is Kant’s
argument for the necessity of critical thinking and his views on the dependence of
thinking critically on community and the public exchange of ideas. Hannah Arendt
argues that Kant “believes that the very faculty of thinking depends on its public
use.”4 Kant writes “without the test of free and open examination no thinking and
no opinion formation are possible. Reason is not made to isolate itself but to get
into community with others.”5
Community, of course, is a central theme for Royce and for Dewey and both
believe and argue for the claim that human are social beings from the start. To be
human is to be a social being. The new views on Kant find a very similar view.
Thus, Arendt explores in some detail Kant’s notion of sensu communis, common
sense, which is the same for everybody; it is an extra human sense that fits us into
community. The maxims of common sense for Kant are (1) The maxim of
enlightenment- ‘Think for oneself; (2) The maxim of enlarged mentality – ‘Put
oneself in thought in the place of everyone else’ and (3) The maxim of consistency‘Be in agreement with yourself.’ (See The Critique of Judgment §40).
Sociability and Communicability play a key role for Kant. Thus, he argues
in his Conjectural Beginning of Human History that the highest end intended for
man is ‘sociability.’6 Kant further agues in The Critique of Judgment that the
impulse to society is natural to man and that sociability even may be seen as a
property belonging to human and humanness. The arguments of Perpetual Peace,
then, seem to follow, i.e. that the “right of temporary sojourn, a right to associate is
one of the inalienable human rights” that that “the law of world citizenship should
be limited to universal hospitality.”7 Exploring aspects of Kant’s thoughts on man
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as a social being and on world citizenship allow us to explore the emphasis of both
Dewey and Royce on community and to explore the relationship of Kant’s ideas in
Perpetual Peace with Royce’s thoughts in his 1916 The Hope of the Great
Community.8 And this should also allow some comments on issues of hospitality
in today’s world.
A final area of exploration would be to relate Kant’s work on imagination
and his concept of beauty and judgment in The Critique of Judgment to John
Dewey’s 1934 work, Art as Experience.9
1 See: Scott Stroud, 2014, Kant and the Promise of Rhetoric. University Park: Penn State University
Press.
2 See Michel Foucault, 1997. 2007. The Politics of Truth. Edited by Sylvére Lotringer; Introduction
by John Rachman, translated by Lysa Hochroth & Catherine Porter, Semiotext(e). See also
Immanuel Kant, Was ist Aufklärun? (“What is Enlightenment?”) 29-37.
3 I have explored the ideas of Dewey and Royce regarding these issues ins several essays including
in Persuasion and Compulsion in Democracy. .Jacquelyn Kegley & Krzysztof Piotr Skowronski (eds.) 2013 - Lexington Books.
4 Hannah Arendt, Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy. Edited with an Interpretive Essay by
Ronald Beiner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, 39.
5 Immanuel Kant, “Refleionen zur Anthropologie,” no. 897, Gesammelte Schriften, Prussian
Academy ed. 15:302.
6 Immanuel Kant, in On History. Ed. Lewis White Beck, tans. L. W. Beck, R.E. Anchor, and E.L.
Fackenheim. Library of Liberal Arts. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill. 1963., p. 54.
7 Immanuel Kant, Perpetual Peace, in On History, 102.
8 Josiah Royce, 1916, The Hope of the Great Community, New York: Macmillan.
9 John Dewey, 1934, Art as Experience. Penguin Publishers.